The Collector of the Cube
by Rhuen
Summary: The sorceress Rhulan, among her many hobbies and habits to pass the time till the end of eternity collects rare and unusual items. Travel now across two eras for when Rhulan obtained the item during her inter-reality travels and chapter 2 many centuries later during the era of the Rhulan Empire when hell seeks to retrieve what is rightfully its own.
1. Chapter 1

The locks were no trouble, neither the alarm, for thanks to an as of yet un-named technique Rhulan picked up she could enter any locked door or touch any alarm system and open them and disarm them, magical ones have a green flash and the sound of shattering glass; these technological ones however only a spark as they short out. Not that it matters this place isn't a museum, bank, or any high security installation; it is a private home, and this room is a private collection display.

After her battles on this world with a nightmare king, and a large undead mutant lake curse; she's not certain how to label it; she sensed the only other prevalent supernatural forces were inert, their nature not clear; so she decided to head for the closest one. Imagine her surprise to find this strong demonic essence locked away in a collection room sitting on a pedestal under glass and is nothing more than a little gold colored ornate cube.

As she handles it part of it moves, "A puzzle box?" she queries as she continues to mess with it. After a while it moves on its own and a darkness appears by the door to the room.

"Interesting," says Rhulan turning towards the door, "A portable dimensional gate generator?"

Hooks on chains fly from the walls towards her, rather than bouncing off her defensive aura as she expected they are absorbed, leaving loose chains dangling from the ceiling with blue sparks dancing where they had contacted Rhulan's aura.

A man wearing tight leather, some even punctured into his flesh and pins in his head appears, as does a few other leather clad abominations. One of them starts to walk towards Rhulan but the Pin Headed one puts out an arm saying, "This one is not for us. It is the desire of the owner of the cube that summons us."

Rhulan merely raises an eyebrow, seemingly ignoring the demons as she touches a chain, it fades away at her touch, the essence dissolving into her aura.

"Demonic manifestations," says Rhulan, "so this box is a portable hell gate, interesting."

She looks briefly at the demons, "and it summons tormentor demons."

She levitates the cube and moves the puzzle with her mind. The demons vanish as she puts the cube back to normal.

The doorway returns to normal and she smiles, "so a tormentor demon that knows its limitations, fascinating."

She looks at a closed door, behind which she can sense more of these cubes.

"If what that demon says is true, then the owner of this place is a fool who deserves to die."

She is about to put the cube back, but turns it around in her hand, "but this one…I think I'll keep this one for my own private collection."

The inner lining of her cape turns from red to black as she puts the cube in it.

Beyond the cape there is a massive warehouse, in which a floating robot with mechanical tentacles carries the cube up a high shelf, activates a flat screen in front of a black cube device. A portal opens, a light scans the cube, and it vanishes. The screen displays the item, now listed beside several other palm held magical portal devices.

"That's one for me," says Rhulan still in the collection room as she opens the door with six other cubes inside, "and looks like this man has six other ways to get himself horribly mutilated, heh."

She takes one and sets it on the pedestal, "Private collectors, I wander if this proto-human will even notice one is missing…heh…before he gets horribly mutilated by those demons."

She leaves the way she came, no doubt he will notice something is wrong thanks to all the broken locks and disarmed alarms, for while Rhulan knows how to disarm alarms, her repair spells only work on solid none electrical objects; despite all her spells she never learned one for repairing electrical equipment. She flies into the air and vanishes through a dimensional portal.

Meanwhile in the depths of this world's hell Pin Head smiles, "Soon the hands of desire will summon us, we have such sights to show you Dr. Philip Channard…such sights indeed."


	2. Chapter 2

In this world, there was a bloodline, the creators of the cubes, compelled to design and build them. As time went on only one such man of this cursed bloodline remained he built a space-station; which was in reality a massive hell cube that folded upon its self and shut the gates to the realm of the Cenobytes forever; as it rendered all other cubes in their universe inert.

How much time has passed relative to realities is hard to determine between universes; a swirling darkness, the unseen omnipresent master of the labyrinth reaches out across time and space unable to reach the one remaining cube directly. The swirling darkness appears on a mountain side, an old man of some south east Asian decent (at least in appearance) exits from the swirling darkness. Behind him is a jungle cast in night, the sounds of un-earthly beasts fill the air. Before him a large sliding door colored to match the mountain side.

The door slides open, activated by an unseen hand. Inside the man walks through darkness stopping in front of one of the many very high shelves. High up on the shelf, one of the many black cubes lights up, a screen activated by an unseen force, upon the screen the hell cube. The item materializes from the storage box and falls down to be caught by the man below, the storage cube goes dark again and the man exits the warehouse. Outside he vanishes in black mist

The man walks out from the backroom of a tiny bamboo hut in a busy crowded street of a south East Asian city.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," says the man with a thick, barely understandable as English accent, "see I told you, a rare…one of a kind, treasure."

He hands the item to a white couple, clearly American tourists. They pay the man and leave. He bows and smiles, his smile cut short by a black broad sword stabbing through his abdomen from behind, the blade flashing with red hourglass runes.

"You know," comes the voice of Rhulan as she fully appears from the darkness of the backroom, "I had completely forgotten about that stupid thing."

She leans in close and whispers in the man's ear, "I have no actual use for it, given what it is; can't even give it away as a gift; so I'll leave it be…however."

The sword blade begins to glow with a red fiery energy, "for something like you to steal from me is a capital offense."

She smiles as the distorted look of pain washes over the demon's distorting face; unable to let out a shriek or even fully transform to its true form before the red energy consumes and dissolves the demon into blackness and nothing. A black portal appears in Rhulan's hand, the sword drawing back into it.

"The only thing you are good for," she says, "you cursed blade is keeping me from getting my hands dirtied by the filthy bodies of such low class scum."

She vanishes back into the darkness.


End file.
